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What Midwestern Electric Utilities Are Saying About Clean Energy

The energy industry has experienced a lot of change,
particularly because the cost of wind and solar energy has plummeted faster
than experts
ever expected. Many electric utilities have taken advantage of this cheap,
home-grown renewable energy and the benefits it brings to their customers,
their bottom line, our economy, and our environment.

You don’t have to take it from us — read on to learn how –
and why – electric utilities are investing in low-cost wind and solar energy
throughout the Midwest!

MINNESOTA: XCEL ENERGY AND
GRE LEADING THE WAY

XCEL ENERGY

Xcel Energy is
investing heavily in affordable wind energy to power their customers’ needs. In
fact, it plans to be 85% carbon free and 60% renewable by 2030. Xcel Energy plans
to own more than 10,000 MW of wind energy by the end of 2021.

“These
projects deliver on our vision to keep energy costs low while also achieving
85% carbon free energy by 2030 for the Upper Midwest,” said Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy Minnesota, North Dakota, and
South Dakota. He also notes that wind is at a price that is
“competitive with new natural gas generation.”

“Xcel Energy regards wind as a hedge against
potentially volatile gas prices,” Xcel Energy CEO Ben Fowke said. “And even with
today’s low natural gas prices, we are able to procure or build wind that is
equal to or below what we could buy a 10- to 20-year strip of natural gas for.”

“What’s
even more amazing is the prices. We’re looking at [prices] in the low teens to
low 20s [in dollars/MWh] – not starting prices, but levelized across the
25-year life of the projects,” said Fowke. [Wind] beats gas, even at today’s prices. I like to say we
backed up the truck because the fuel of tomorrow was on sale today.”

Xcel Energy is a perfect example of electric utilities that
are using wind and solar power to deliver cheaper energy to their customers.
These clean energy projects are built in the Upper Midwest, which means their
customers benefit from the local benefits of hosting a clean energy project: new
tax revenue, landowner lease payments, and new jobs. In Minnesota alone, Xcel plans
to purchase 1,800 MW of wind energy and 1,400 MW of solar energy by 2030, according
to its Integrated Resource Plan approved by the PUC in 2016.

GREAT RIVER ENERGY

Great River Energy (GRE) is the second-largest electricity
provider in Minnesota and powers many of the rural electric co-ops in Minnesota
and Wisconsin. In May, 2018, GRE announced
its plan to source 50% of its power from renewables by 2030.

GRE already owns
468 MW of wind energy and 4 MW of solar energy, and it aims to add an
additional 600 MW of renewable energy by 2030.

“Renewable energy, particularly wind, is Great
River Energy’s lowest-cost option for new generation resources,” stated
Great River Energy in a press release last month. “The goal does not change [our] mandate to provide
affordable and reliable energy … [and] average
wholesale rates will remain flat in 2019 with projected increases below the
rate of inflation for the next decade.”

Not only is renewable energy a least-cost source of
electricity, the company has also integrated it without affecting reliability.

“Wind is becoming the new baseload,” stated Great River Energy CEO David Saggau in 2017.

IOWA DOUBLES DOWN

MIDAMERICAN ENERGY

MidAmerican Energy is the largest electric utility in Iowa
and also serves customers in Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska. It plans
to provide net 100% renewable energy for its customers energy needs by 2020,
and it recently surpassed the 50%
mark.

MidAmerican is another great example of a large utility
investing in local clean energy – and bringing clean energy benefits to its
customers. MidAmerican Energy has
stated that its wind projects, Wind XI and Wind XII, will be accomplished
without asking for an increase in their customers’ rates. Their wind projects are
the largest economic development project in Iowa’s history.

“Wind
energy is friendly to our environment, helps keep rates low for our customers,
and benefits Iowa’s economy in many ways,” said Adam Wright, MidAmerican Energy President and CEO.

“… we
have this low-cost energy resource that we can leverage and keep low and
stable, so eveday Iowans will be impacted by their rates low and stable,” said Wright.

”There’s not another utility in the country
— gas, water, cable, electric — that’s held rates steady for 12, 13 years,”
said MidAmerican CEO Bill Fehrman. MidAmerican’s rates have increased only once
since 1998 and are the ninth-lowest nationally. “A lot of that is because of
the wind investment. The beauty of wind
is there’s no fuel costs. We will be able to virtually serve 89 percent of our
customers’ needs with an energy resource that requires no fuel.”

“Iowans are used to leading the way. We
believe to our core that it is our responsibility to use the resources we are
given in the best way possible. It’s the sustainable approach that has led Iowa
to achieve the highest percentage of power generation coming from wind energy,
more than any other state. And, it doesn’t hurt that we have a company like MidAmerican Energy that has taken the long
view and is forward-looking in its goal to provide sustainable and affordable
energy to its customers.”

MICHIGAN’S TRANSITION
TO CLEAN ENERGY

CONSUMERS ENERGY

Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest
energy provider and has a goal
to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2040. It plans
for more than 40 percent of the energy it produces to come from wind and solar
energy by 2040, and it will reduce its carbon emissions by replacing coal-fired
units with natural gas.

Consumers Energy currently
powers 11% of its energy needs from renewable energy. It plans to add 5,000
MW of solar energy in the 2020s, along with more wind energy, battery storage,
demand response, and energy efficiency.

Consumers
Energy CEO Patti Poppe states that “our price to install and
deliver wind power is down 75 percent from where we originally thought it
would be. We think it’s important to include renewable sources as part of our
total portfolio.”

“In the past people believed that we had to
choose between affordable and clean energy; we don’t subscribe to that sucker’s
choice,” said Poppe this past February. “Our commitment is to achieve our goal and
keep our prices affordable.”

DTE ENERGY

DTE Energy is the largest investor of wind and solar energy
in Michigan. It plans
to power 25% of their energy needs with renewables by 2030 and reduce
carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. It will
build 1,000 MW of new wind and solar projects in Michigan by 2022. By 2050,
DTE expects
to have 40% of its power from natural gas, 30% from wind, 20% from nuclear,
and 10% from solar.

DTE
Energy CEO Gerard Anderson stated that their investments in wind
and solar “… [are] another
significant step toward our carbon emission reduction goals, and those goals
can be met in a way that continues to deliver reliable and affordable power for
our customers.”

DTE
Energy has invested over $2 billion in wind energy in the past 10 years, noting that “[wind energy has] created
hundreds of jobs for residents and a local tax revenue for communities while
delivering reliable, affordable and clean energy for our 2.2 million Michigan
customers.”

The Michigan PSC has
noted that DTE’s investments in renewable energy, storage, natural gas
plants, and waste reduction have allowed them to meet their energy needs in a “reliable,
affordable manner that protects the environment,” said Sally Talberg,
chairman of the Michigan Public Service Commission. Reliable, affordable energy
that is generated in-state is a win-win for all of DTE Energy’s customers.

It’s clear that many of the Midwest’s electric utilities are
leading the nation’s transition toward clean energy to the benefit of
ratepayers, our economy, and our environment. That’s good news for their
customers that want clean, affordable energy. It’s good for rural communities
throughout the Midwest that
benefit from the capital investments that drive an economic ripple effect
throughout the community. And it’s good for the U.S. economy, as the wind industry
employs over 100,000
Americans and the solar industry employs nearly 250,000. Wind
and solar energy are affordable, clean sources of reliable energy that is
powering our future.